A Mind Map Wrap: Closing the day at the Regenerating Food Systems conference

Last week’s episode and bonus extra featured the first panel conversation and my MC's introduction, respectively, to the Regenerating Food Systems conference hosted by RegenWA last month at Perth Stadium. Today, a final brief instalment from that event – a summary of all that happened during day one. With a little experiment. 

I was relieved and grateful when a bunch of people came up to me afterwards to say how much they appreciated that experiment. One person I respect even asked if they could access a recording of it. Well, there was a recording, and you’re listening to a podcaster of course, so maybe it could be podcast fodder. Could be a good way to share a taste of what went down with you too. It sure was an outstanding day. 

So I gave it a listen back (thanks to RegenWA), and on balance, it got the green light. As always, you’ll let me know if it shouldn’t have. But here it is. My ten-minute close to day one of the Regenerating Food Systems conference.

Here’s the conference program if you feel like tracing who I’m referencing throughout.

For more from both days, you can read RegenWA’s written debrief, standby for their release of other recordings, and of course listen to last week’s episodes.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 17 September 2025.

Title image by Alex Hawkins from Simple Ben Stories. 

For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Music:

Beat Blitz by Sunny Fruit (sourced from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage In Perth
• 2:40 A Mind Map Wrap of the Day
• 4:12 Evidence, Context, And Connection
• 7:10 Language, Identity, And Story
• 10:20 Communities And Microbial Models

Transcript

AJ: 0:08

G'day, Anthony James here for The RegenNarration, your ad-free, freely available listener-supported podcast, exploring how people are regenerating the systems and stories we live by. Last week's episode and bonus extra featured the first panel conversation and my MC's introduction, respectively, to the Regenerating Food Systems Conference hosted by Regen WA last month at Perth Stadium. Today, a final brief instalment from that event. Part of my charge as MC was also to decide how best to wrap up all that had happened at the end of day one. So I'm there thinking to myself, I've got options. I could just thank everyone and head off to the sundowner. Tempting. Easy. But sometimes it could add some value to retrace the day in some way. Those who've listened to this podcast for a while would know I wouldn't do this in a linear way, I'd sooner send us all of that sundowner. So I'm sitting in my seat as the last session played out, looking at the mind mapping I'd been sketching, wondering if people would enjoy hearing me share some of that to close the day. On a knife's edge about it, I took a punt they would and headed up to see how it'd come out. I was relieved and grateful when a bunch of people came up to me afterwards to say how much they appreciated it. One person I respect even asked if they could access a recording of it. Thanks, Katie Stubley. Well, there was a recording, and you're listening to a podcaster after all, so maybe it could be podcast fodder. Could be a good way to share a taste of what went down with you too. It sure was an outstanding day. So I gave it a listen, thanks to Regen WA, and on balance, it got the green light. As always, you'll let me know if it shouldn't have. But here it is, my 10-minute close to day one of the Regenerating Food Systems Conference. Heads up, you're gonna hear names, but just first names. By then we'd settled right in. So I've linked the conference program in the show notes in case you'd like to reference who I'm talking about. Oh and in case you're wondering, we did something entirely different to end day two and the conference as a whole, an exercise with everyone in the room. For more on both days, you can read Regen WA's written debrief, stand by for their release of other recordings, and of course, listen to last week's episodes. All links in the show notes. One final note, there are a few audio yips in the first minutes, but that evens out. So let's head back to Perth Stadium. Now, I'll take Heidi's lead. I've been mind mapping a bit as the day's gone on. So I'm gonna prattle off a bit, not necessarily attempt a coherent narrative and retrace the day a little bit. So we started the day with the governor here and the West Australians of the year. And I just want to make mention of that again because that's extraordinary. Certainly, when I think back to six years ago here, that's extraordinary to think. Evidence of shift enough in some ways, and certainly then I'm reminded of the dial shifting fast, you know, for all the conversations about how to shift it faster, that that's actually in motion. So, how does that inform how we approach what goes from here? And I think that touches right back on where that ended off. I might come back to that. Because it was fascinating for me to see the thread throughout, which was obviously no accident, there was a session around it, of the call for evidence. And I respected the governor sort of landing that early from his frame as a cop, that that would be true. It makes perfect sense. But then to have this flood of evidence follow him. And so, in some respects, it's already there, and I hear it again when it's said that the companies are already on to it, they're not waiting for any more, they're jumping in now, they see the writing on the wall. We know the consumer demand, the Haggerty's will say consumers aren't the problem, we just gotta get it there. We might come back to that too. But of course, that doesn't discount developing more evidence of all kinds, and I think about then, yes, natural capital, the microbiome, the ray gun, nutrient density, of course, and the treaty. I think about, in addition to that, connection and story as evidence, as knowledge. And I take I take a bit of Ronnie's lead too when he says to see things more whole. That was a key in processes of coming together. You didn't say these words, Ronnie, but it reminds me of theories around intrinsic values that we all respond to that. Humans by and large respond to what matters at that deep level. You know, talked about kids front and centre, that actually it can be a trap to try and reach people on money or status. Extrinsic values. So context to evidence seems important. Spirit, we heard about observation, we heard about love and consciousness and relationship and trust and gut. I'm reminded of Oral's phrase, which he didn't use here, and I almost pulled it out in the panel, but he said it as much. But I'll say it here that biodiversity is the manifestation of spirit. And I think about all that and how it feeds health in the broader terms that had been mentioned a lot today. And I was thinking about those outcomes then and heard so much reflected back, the outcomes along those lines, and that the outcomes reflect back on the trust and develop the trust, that that's where we can transcend a lot of our differences. I think about language, which we heard a lot about today, but it hit me at one stage. We heard ancient language at the top today. And I thought about the context that brings to our talk about regenerative. It seems so trivial to bother about it in the context of 40,000 years of ancient language that evolved with this landscape. I think about Joel suggesting that there'll be another term in six years that people are getting hung up about. And it might bridge regen and conventional a bit more, even. So let's just keep going. I think about Dan, it's not what you call yourself. I think about Heidi's poetic scribing and reframing language and story and communication itself. And how when Heidi said we're not farmers, but we've been connected to country for 40,000 years, feeding ourselves, etc. So it's not what you call yourself. Communities, we heard a lot about. Live like microbes, seems to be the message, no? Organize like the microbiome, I've heard many a time over the last eight years, I could tell you. No surprises considering how much of a proportion of this thing in front of you you see that is bacteria and so forth. We are. I mean, what did you say, Craig? Up to 99.9% of the of existence is microbial community. And how many times did I hear, and from Walter at the top again, I sort of take the lead from that it's together or not at all that we do this stuff? And in that sense, very deeply, but together we can. The word, Liz, I think you trotted it out late. It's an invitation, and I felt like that slotted right in there. And for that matter, back to Ronnie, and and I guess so many voices I hear, it's farmer-led, it's soil up, and it's farmer-led in that sense, and like the process in Collie in a way, including across difference, as we continue to hear. And part of how we extend ourselves, perhaps, questions you were raising, Ronnie. I think about livelihood and economies for this. And then hearing Terry speak, again, just reminded me, having heard him speak over the years, of family. And so I'll say community again, in all that. That sure, we might find ways to get paid more and should, for nutrient density, which may be then equating with getting paid properly for producing good food, as Terry also said. And then perhaps we don't even need so much of the other stuff that Terry talked about as being a s a result of not getting paid properly for good food. But sure, biodiversity schemes, carbon, etc. Lance actually um suggested before the conference, akin to uh you know, would-be mining rehabilitation fees paid by people who are extracting, industries extracting, where mine rehab basically doesn't happen. I think I can I'll put that out there anyway. Basically doesn't happen. I remember David Pollock talking about why don't we put the money that's supposed to go into mine rehab that doesn't happen anyway, and apply it to vastly bigger landscape areas through work that you guys do. How would that be? And then importantly, it's not just financial return, huh? As we heard from the common land folk, but oral rings loud in my mind. You get paid in life in so many ways. And I need not add to how he put it, and Heidi echoed it really. To get away from, I mean when you think about it, how crazy it is that we commoditized food, that we treated it like iron ore, let alone land itself. So there's that ownership tenure conversation, which we must have more of. Okay, to round out, I do think about yield. So Dan says that he managed to increase yield with nutrient density. Great. If it all plays out like that, awesome. But Heidi, I'm so glad you went back to that waste issue that Hannabeth raised early. It's a screaming howler of an immoral aspect of something that largely flies under the radar and is so central to everything we're talking about on a food security and caring for land level. Plus the resilience factor. If the Haggertys were here, they'd be talking about how when they got 84 mil of rain in the northern wheat belt a couple of years ago, they still got a yield that wasn't markedly lower. It is remarkable. So, sure, in a good rain year like this, the NPK crops might torch them, but not by much these days. But when the bottom drops out, they're still there. And that classic farmer, mental health suicide stress thing just doesn't need to be that way. I think about penultimately, access to market was mentioned, and in a risk frame too. I think about so much of what I hear of and the Valley of Death, the transition thing. Ian Haggerty will tell us, he told us at Government House, geez, was that last night? No, the night before. He said, to think about how we can get more farmers farming like this is a bit cart before horse now. We need the new systems that enable more farmers to get to market by farming like this. And in a different way, of course, that's not commoditizing, but that does help you through the valley of death, maybe even eradicates it. I've heard from some farmers that's their experience. They didn't experience the valley of death when they had those opportunities. So what might that look like? And finally, the new knowledge system that Heidi mentioned. It echoed what I spoke at length about with a couple of people a while back when a book called Songlines, The Power and the Promise came out. The first book in the first knowledges series. Oh, it's over there, it's at the bookstore? There you go. I highly recommend it. And essentially their entire thesis bringing together what was termed the most powerful knowledge system ever, with of course, this modern powerful knowledge system. Who can deny, for all the good and bad, the power of the Western knowledge system? What if we brought them together? It was about transcending that to indeed a new knowledge system. Which then brings us full circle, no? To Walter, doing that together. It's together or not at all, but wow, what if we did it together? Collective action. And then that was echoed time and again. Listening, like deeply listening, gratitude mindset, scaling deep. And for what it's worth, there was a guest on a podcast who I actually then met again in New Mexico not long ago, who works in this stuff too, bringing people together in fractious, often brought in last resort, right? People coming to arms even over in the States. Go slow to go fast. And that was an evidence-based phrase. One big thanks once again. Please give yourselves a huge hand. It was a great day. Have a wonderful evening.